McDonald's testing "Breakfast After Midnight" -- but not in Denver

After hearing that McDonald's, America's favorite -- and only -- purveyor of Egg McMuffins, is test-marketing a new promotion, "Breakfast After Midnight," in a few locations including Denver, I cruised into the McDoo's at 505 East Colfax Avenue at 12:01 a.m. -- only to find no breakfast. And, in fact, employees had no idea why I was asking for it.

I was asking because I'd read about Denver being a test market for the concept in numerous media reports, including the Huffington Post, which said this: "McDonald's new Breakfast After Midnight menu -- available in locations across the state of Ohio, Denver and Boston -- offers limited breakfast offerings from 12 a.m. onward. Included are popular items like Egg McMuffins, Sausage McMuffins, hotcakes with sausage, breakfast burritos, fruit and maple oatmeal, hash browns, juice and coffee. The menu will be available in all 24-hour McDonald's stores in featured markets."

But not on Colfax. And when I called around to the other 22 McDonald's locations in Denver proper, no one seemed to know anything about serving a late-night breakfast.

So I contacted the McDonald's corporate office, and Paul Barrera, marketing manager for the Rocky Mountain region, had this to report: "At this time, Denver-area McDonald's will not be participating in Breakfast After Midnight. However, we hope to bring it to the marketplace soon."

The Breakfast After Midnight menu was definitely tested in 127 restaurants in Ohio, according to a story in the Chicago Tribune last week."Customers are commuting longer, people are out at different hours of the day," McD's spokeswoman Dayna Proud told the paper. "This is a good opportunity to meet the needs of those customers."

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